Rathbone reads rave-reviewed first book

South African-born Emma Rathbone was a Henry Hoyns Fellow at UVA.PUBLICITY PHOTO

You write your first novel and get a rave review from the New Yorker, which compares your protagonist to Catcher in the Rye's iconic Holden Caulfield, only the venerable periodical declares your hero is "a good bit funnier and a lot less mopey."

That fairy tale scenario really happened to Charlottesville resident Emma Rathbone, 2006 UVA MFA creative writing grad, whose The Patterns of Paper Monsters came out in August and is picking up kudos as fast as reviewers get a copy. Rathbone will read from her tale of a teen in juvenile detention at 5pm Thursday, September 23, at the Iris Magazine fall release party/literary soiree at the Women's Center across from the White Spot on University Avenue. Free and open to the public.